Traditional games still in play

Sales of games and puzzles dipped 6% last year to $1.24 billion, according to the NPD Group, but Adrienne Appell, a spokeswoman for the Toy Industry Association, said that as a category, games have held steady over the past few years.

Appell said travel games are a key category for the mass and drug channels around the holiday and summer travel seasons. Traditional games continue to be extremely popular, but such new entries as Lego’s Creationary, Hasbro’s Scrabble Flash and Mattel’s Loopz have performed well this holiday season. Lower-priced products, such as Blue Orange’s Spot It! ($12.99), Gamewright’s Rory’s Story Cubes ($7.99) and I Can Do That! Games (under $10), also are strong new products.

The article above is part of the DSN Category Review Series. For the complete Games Sell-Through Report, including extensive charts, data and more analysis, click here.

CVS’ Foulkes named vice chairwoman of R.I.’s EDC board

PROVIDENCE, R.I. — Rhode Island Gov. Lincoln Chafee last week appointed Helena Foulkes, EVP and chief marketing officer for CVS Caremark, to the R.I. Economic Development Corp. board of directors, according to published reports.

Foulkes will serve as vice chairwoman of the EDC board. She is the first female to serve in this capacity.

Also named to the board were information technology expert Jack Templin, co-founder of the Providence Geeks and RI Nexus; Providence developer Stanley Weiss, founder of the Hotel Providence; and Central Falls real estate developer and manager Jerauld Adams.

The appointments are subject to the review and consent of the Senate.

Foulkes last year had been named to Chafee’s transition committee and had sat on a panel at Chafee’s budget summit at Rhode Island College in December 2010.

Shopper marketing agency Creative Channel Services announced Tuesday that Costco would use its CyberScholar Retail Network and had integrated it into its U.S. employee-development strategies for consumer electronics products.

The program gives Costco employees at 414 stores easy access to learning modules from manufacturers of cameras, GPS devices, home theaters, televisions and other products, and delivers those modules through one portal, allowing employees to deliver information to customers.

“Creative Channel Services is proud to deliver our CyberScholar Retail Network product-knowledge resources to Costco employees,” CCS president and CEO Andy Restivo said. “This partnership is a win-win-win, as the benefits extend from manufacturers to Costco’s employees and, most importantly, to Costco members.”

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